Oxford Botanic Gardens
Sometimes as a gardener, it’s just hard to beat Mother Nature. Especially like a time in Autumn, when the colour of trees says it all. These are a few shots of autumn colour.
South Parks, amidst the dreaming spires
Bolton Abbey through the November Sun.
Radcliffe Camera through Christ Church Meadow
Wychwood Forest near Cotswolds.
When thinking of when the garden is at its best, we often imagine the sun at its peak -Â a hot summers day in the middle of June. However, for taking photos, this can be difficult.
As well as bright sun, there are also some magical moments at other times of the day and year. Early in the morning, the sun light is soft. It’s angle throws a fascinating light onto the garden. The whole garden can be transformed by the different light and angle. Even when the garden is at its quietest, there are still some fascinating and beautiful aspects.
Try setting the alarm and viewing the garden at a different time of the day, you may be surprised.
Early Morning mist highlights this spiders web amidst Verbena bonariensis
It’s been a relative dry summer down here in Oxford. The recent rain has brought out the best in our flowers and plants. A few shots from recent rainy day.
Sweet Pea
Geranium
Rose
Dahlia
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My front garden was looking a little ragged. I was tired of permanently fighting a loosing battle against weeds, so I thought I would brighten up the garden and make it low maintenance at the same time.
I placed a good quality weed suppressing material over the soil. It is best to prepare the soil, by removing weeds and raking until smooth. Then I placed a strip of weed suppressing material on the soil. To go round the trees, I gave the material a little cut so it would squeeze through the stem of the trees.
Then I laid some stones on top of the weed suppressing material and that was all. The weed suppressing material is relatively cheap. The stones from my local garden centre were quite expensive. But, since it was a small area it wasn’t too bad. If you are using a lot of stones / pebbles, it is worth looking into a custom delivery.
The interesting thing is how the brightly coloured gravel changed the complexion of the garden. Funnily enough a lodger who had been living there a few months, thought the conifers had just been planted. In other words, with gravel underneath it looked a different plant.
Now it is laid down, at least part of the garden will be weed free and low maintenance for a long time. A good investment of time and money.
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Light and shadow over Oxford Botanic Gardens. Cloud cover clears to allow sunlight through.
Crocosmia Lucifer – A great variety of Crocosmia. It is actually a deeper red, but, the midday sun made it a little washed out.
Close up of Rudbeckia.
Some of our gardening books
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We will try to focus on common sense gardening advice, avoiding too much technical jargon.
Roses.
Beauty, dignity, fragrance and style. The rose is perhaps the Queen of flowers. A very rewarding plant to grow. Some of the modern cultivars have lost the beautiful old fragrance, but, the good news is that they are more disease tolerant. See: Tips on Growing roses
Sunflower
Simple, pure and fun. The sunflowers is a great flower for anyone to grow. It is hard to look at a sunflower and not be cheered a little. It is as if the sunflower is smiling at you. Tips on growing sunflowers here
Lupins. See: Growing Lupins
Sweet Peas:
Sweet peas come in many colours and offer a long flowering season, making a lovely cut flower. The fragrance helps the sweet pea to be one our most popular garden flowers.
See: Growing sweet peas
Pansy
Low growing, colourful pansies are one of the most common garden flowers because they can give such a long flowering season. One of the few annuals to flower even in the depths of winter. Great value, no wonder they are so popular!
Begonias from tubers are a very rewarding plant. If protected from frost, they are a relative easy plant to grow. They can remain relatively pest free and provide a long flowering season.
You can start plants as early in February in a heated greenhouse or indoors on windowsill. The best temperature is 18-22 degrees. They will start growing at lower temperatures but their growth will be slower.
Keep moist, but, not standing in water or overly damp as this can lead to rot and mildew problems.
Plant the top of the tuber just below the soil surface, hollow side upward.
You should be able to see where last year’s growth has been cut off. It is the concaved side (dish shaped). You may also see the first buds for new shoots.
When the first shoots appear, make sure the plant gets plenty of light and is rotated if on a windowsill to get a well rounded plant.
The begonias can grow quickly and so might outgrow their first 3 inch pot. Pot on to five or seven inch pots, before they are ready to be hardened off and planted outside.
Fresh lettuce from the garden is well worth cultivating. It can be a quick crop, ideal for a small garden. Planted in neat rows, it can also be an attractive veg, especially if you try growing different leaf coloured varieties.
Lettuce can be sown from late Feb to June. Though obviously, in Feb will need careful protection. Germination takes 7-12 days. It needs a moist warm environment. However, beware that if the temperature is too hot (over 21 degrees) germination may be patchy.
Sow relatively thinly, lettuce seedlings dislike being transplanted so when thinning out, just discard the excess plants.
For growing full lettuce, sow 30cm apart. However, for salad ‘cut and come’ varieties, you can sow closer and keep cutting leaves to get a second crop.
Beautiful, but a hundred potential weeds.
Weeds
There are two types of weeds. – The weed which can easily be controlled through hoeing (e.g. annuals like plantains and the persistent perennial weeds – horsetail, bindweed and japanese knotweed. These latter group of weeds need a persistent and determined strategy to rid your garden of them. It takes a combination of deep digging their roots, and then spraying or hoeing off new growth until they are finally defeated.
In the case of weeds like horsetail, it can really test your patience as it can be years of weeding before you clear the garden of it.
Other weeds still require regular maintenance to keep down. If possible follow the good old advice of hoeing before they set seeding or as the saying goes – one years weeding = seven years weeding
Neglect
Here is a common garden problem – not enough time to do what we need to do. – Weeds allowed to grow, grass too long and weedy, plants not deadheaded and a general feeling of neglect. Don’t feel too bad, nature doesn’t have a gardener, and nature doesn’t do too bad. Try to enjoy the natural aspect of the garden, even the weeds can be quite nice, if we don’t worry too much. But, if you can find a bit more time for regular maintenance you will get much more joy from the garden.
Though another less well addressed common garden problem is that of the stressed gardener. Don’t try to do everything and be perfect. There is more to the garden than immaculate edges and 100% weed free soil…